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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27069994">Heart, Soul, and the life in-between</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetoLeGaosaure/pseuds/LetoLeGaosaure'>LetoLeGaosaure</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Blood, Gen, Self-Harm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-09 00:34:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>981</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27069994</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetoLeGaosaure/pseuds/LetoLeGaosaure</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Angels don't only <i>have</i> power. They <i>are</i> power, down to their core.<br/>Which doesn't mean they're only ever strong.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hanekoma Sanae/Kitaniji Megumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Heart, Soul, and the life in-between</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Megumi woke up to a feeling of… pressure. Or maybe a strange vibration, something that scratched directly against his very Soul, thus bypassing all traditional perceptions. He slowly sat up, groggy. Through the curtains he could only see darkness. It was the middle of the night. What could be happening?</p><p>He was too uneasy to go back to sleep now. He got up from his bed –technically, Sanae's bed, not that the Angel ever used it– and followed the weird sensation toward the workshop.</p><p>The light inside of the room blinded him for a few seconds despite how low it was. He rubbed at his eyes and forced himself to focus. The source of whatever had woken him up was in there, he could feel it, he just needed to <i>see</i>.</p><p>He saw Sanae.</p><p>It didn't help his unease at all, because Sanae was sitting on a chair in front of an easel, and Sanae <i>never</i> sat to create. His way of making art was full of movement and energy, breathing life into his creation, and even when he spent hours working on a tiny detail he seemed to need total freedom to function. There were no chairs in the workshop, usually. When Megumi wanted one to look at Sanae creating, he had to bring one from the café.</p><p>"Sanae?"</p><p>No answer. Megumi frowned. It was not exactly unusual to be ignored when Sanae was "in the zone", but… something definitely didn't feel <i>right</i>. Carefully avoiding paint cans and piles of papers, Megumi came closer. The not-vibration was more intense here; he suspected it could give him a serious headache if it went on for too long.</p><p>He took another look at Sanae, and all concern about a potential headache went through the window.</p><p>Sanae was paler than he had ever seen him. He also looked downright <i>exhausted</i>, possibly close to passing out. He was staring at his canvas, his breathing labored, and Megumi almost missed how badly his hands were shaking.</p><p>It seemed like a detail when blood was coating his wrist, leaving bright marks along his fingers.</p><p>"<i>Sanae</i>!"</p><p>Still no reaction, and Megumi could only run toward him, wanting to shake him out of– wanting to heal– to save–</p><p>He fell to his knees next to Sanae, the otherworldly <i>pressure</i> too intense. He grabbed his arm, shook him, not caring about anything else.</p><p>"Sanae, please, answer me!" Megumi begged.</p><p>He could barely breathe, and he didn't know if it was panic or that strange phenomenon making it hard to get air into his lungs.</p><p>It was only when he pressed his palm against Sanae's sliced wrist that he got a reaction.</p><p>"Megs?"</p><p>Sanae's voice was so small, so <i>confused</i>…</p><p>"What are you doing?" Sanae asked.<br/>
"What am I… what do you mean <i>what are you doing</i>?! I'm trying to keep you from <i>bleeding out</i> you–"</p><p>Megumi couldn't finish, choking on <i>fear</i> and tears he refused to let out.</p><p>"But… I'm alright…" Sanae said.<br/>
"No you're not!"</p><p>Sanae only stared at him like Megumi had lost his mind.</p><p>"For fuck's sake, <i>look at you</i>!" Megumi went on.</p><p>Sanae slowly blinked, and a sliver of awareness came back to his eyes.</p><p>"Megs, calm down," he soothed. "I'm alright, I promise. This is not what you think."</p><p>Megumi only pressed harder on the wound. Sanae winced.</p><p>"I'll need that," he added.<br/>
"What? Why?!"</p><p>Sanae slightly cocked his head.</p><p>"Can't you feel it?"</p><p>When Megumi only stared at him, Sanae pointed the canvas with a brief move of his head.</p><p>Megumi looked, and he finally understood what that strange sensation was.</p><p>It was obviously a CAT painting, except it was way <i>more</i> than that. </p><p>To the naked eyes, it was bright colors and bold shapes, getting more and more… blurry and <i>bloody</i> on the borders of the canvas. Megumi knew without having to ask that the whole picture was only made of Sanae's blood, and the different colors only appeared because of the other factor at play.</p><p>For someone able to <i>consciously</i> feel Imprints, it was radiating raw power. It was also very obviously unfinished, <i>unbalanced</i>. Megumi couldn't even read the intended message, blinded by the intensity of Sanae's work. </p><p>He felt faint. The painting was pressing down on his mind, but he was also so <i>worried</i> about Sanae. There was already <i>so much</i> blood on the canvas. Did he hide to wound himself each and every time he produced a new piece? How could it be <i>safe</i>?</p><p>Sanae's shaky hand gently came to cup Megumi's head and pull him against his side. Megumi closed his eyes, residual images burnt into his retina.</p><p>"I can't stop now," Sanae softly said.</p><p>Megumi could feel that. Cutting the process <i>now</i> would only lead to backslash. It didn't stop him from hating it.</p><p>When Sanae tried to pry open Megumi's hand clutching his wrist, Megumi let him. He silently kept watch as Sanae slowly fell back into his creative trance, bleeding on his paintbrush, bleeding on his canvas, and pouring so much more than just blood into his art.</p><p>Megumi could feel the exact second when it was finished. The almost unbearable tension in the air dissolved into nothing in just a fraction of a second. When he looked up, the painting was unassuming, the Imprint seemingly soft and subtle, but now Megumi knew how powerful it really was.</p><p>He couldn't care less.</p><p>What was important was <i>finally</i> healing Sanae's wrist and pull him toward the shower to wash the blood off his skin. What was important was being here to support his weight when Sanae could barely walk. What was important was getting him to drink and eat, and talk to him until he slowly came out of his daze.</p><p>When consciousness crept back into Sanae's eyes, he weakly hugged Megumi.</p><p>"Thank you," he whispered.</p><p>Then, for the first time, Megumi saw him fall asleep.</p>
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